Growth of a system: Nature has provided the fullest freedom to every creature living on this earth. Only a few thousand years back the man moved freely in the jungles, hunted for food, had his kill and was able to satisfy all his wants. Thereafter, he had all the time available to him to lie down and relax. There were mountains, there were green valleys and there were lakes and rivers with a liberal supply of life giving food and water. The air was fresh and energizing. Subsequently, the urge of the man to settle down, led to the development of agriculture in the river valleys or close to other sources of water, followed by formation of tribes, communities, villages, towns, states and nations. Thereafter, industrialization followed and transformed the whole scene. In the process, leading to the development of civilization, the individual willingly surrendered a part of his freedom, at every stage, from considerations of safety and security and for the common good and welfare of his brood, tribe, community, business or nation to which he belonged. Gradually, those who got into positions of power, started manipulating all possible levers of power and by and by, they became all powerful. These days, the urge to get into positions of power has become a business or profession and once the man is able to enter into the hallowed corridors of power, he forgets almost everything about his commitments and obligations and all his energies are consumed in all out efforts to retain his power and pelf. The phenomenon is almost universal, at all social, economic and political levels in almost all countries. The common man has been seeing all this, all the time and has been a helpless witness and collaborator to all that is happening and is meekly putting up with the consequences. It seems that everybody knows the problems and everybody knows the solutions, but, in the name of civilization, growth and development, the system has been able to create deep ruts, which sap most of the initiatives and energies of the common folk and they are left with almost no choice to think freely and to chart their own courses.
The Man: Man is a wonderful creation of nature. Once upon a time, this planet was all wilderness. Man has gradually risen from there to the present day, where the world has shrunk beyond recognition and almost everything is available to the man on his finger tips. He is intelligent. He is innovative. He has talents and all the physical capacities and mental attitudes to work wonders. Everybody knows that the man has a small chip embedded at the back of his skull. This chip has the capacity to store much greater memory than any of the chips designed by man so far. Think of any of the incidents of your childhood and you will find that a photographic image flashes from somewhere. Naturally, a man carries with him the images of all that happens in his life. He is able to recall some of these images from time to time, whenever he wants to see them and is able to draw some reinforcement from those happenings or incidents. Such people are always proud of what they are and what they were. They remain tied to their roots and are conscious about their responsibilities and obligations. Whereas, in some other cases, people find the recollection of goneby memories uncomfortable and they do not like to have any association or link with anything that is etched in their memory. They make conscious efforts to block all such memory and try to slip on coloured glasses to filter out all those happenings, which they feel are not in tune with their egos and prejudices. In extreme cases, they fondly hope to rewrite everything and try to paint their past in desired colours to have an opportunity to bask in the fantasies of their own. All the same, the images remain there and can not be erased by any of the methods known to man.
Faith: Look at any temple, church, gurudwara, mosque or any other place of worship, with milling crowds of people trooping in and out. The devotees include all types of people drawn from every strata of society, rich and poor, good and bad, thieves and robbers, rulers, politicians and terrorists. What draws them there? Why do they keep going there? The religions may be different, the rituals may be different, but a common thread runs through all of them, which exerts some sort of pull, guiding their steps to the places of worship. The phenomenon cuts through all barriers of caste, creed, culture and religion and social, economic, and political stratifications. That little thread is faith. It is faith that motivates a man to build temples, churches, gurudwaras, mosques and other places of worship in public places and in the sanctity of their modest homes. Faith is a tool. It is neither good nor bad. It all depends on the individual who handles it. In good hands, faith dilutes all egos, complexes and prejudices. It serves as a link for bridging the gap between man and man and gradually, the men of faith start developing fraternal feelings for all and sundry in the community. They always like to see a friendly smile and glow on the faces of the people. However, there are others who cling to their sense of superiority and a divine right to sit on a high pedestal. For them, every third person appears to be posing a challenge to their position. Gradually, they start living in a fanciful world of their own, bumping into all and sundry, off and on. Since times immemorial all conflicts of the world can be traced to rigid attitudes of such people and blind support by them for imposing their professed faith, belief, religion or ways of life on the common man.
The Supreme Power: Every faith or religion has a belief in the existence of an invisible, all pervading supreme power that is responsible for the creation of mother earth and all other celestial objects orbiting in the universe. It is believed that this supreme body ordains, oversees and controls everything that happens on this earth and elsewhere in the vastness of the universe. There have been apostles, sages, prophets and other wise men from almost every country or religion, who have spent their lives in the quest for this supreme body and to have some sort of enlightenment and communion with this supreme body. These saints and holy men are said to have had visions and close communion with the supreme power and they have passed on their experiences to their followers by the word of mouth. In spite of all that has been said or written, it seems that nobody has physically seen the supreme power, commonly referred to as God. However, the manifestations of his power are there for everybody to see, think and feel. Everybody knows about the physical existence and the vastness of the universe and the limitless diversity of the flora and fauna of our little world. We know about the precarious balancing of mother earth on floating plates, bumping against each other. We can see sparks of life scattered all over the earth. Naturally, some unknown and hidden power is associated with almost everything everywhere, which creates, regulates and controls everything on our mother earth and in the unlimited vastness of space. All that we may say is, that, it is beyond the comprehension of the human mind to visualize and to have any physical understanding about this supreme power. Naturally, all believers submit to this supreme power blindly, without any ifs, buts or hesitation and the non-believers continue to float in the cesspools of their ignorance.
Living for each other: Look to any of the newspapers, TV channels or radio broadcasts, anywhere in the world and you will find them full of news about mini-wars, terror blasts and all types of conflicts on the one side and socio-economic insecurity, unemployment, mal-nutrition and hunger on the other side. With the best of intentions and solemn affirmations by most of the wise men, leaders, politicians and social thinkers in almost all the countries, the pressing problems of the world seem to be spinning out of control and there does not appear to be any hope about the solution of any of the problems of the world in the foreseeable future. It seems that, over all these years, we have been trying to build everything, except man. The concept involves an integrated development and enlightenment of every individual, so that, the society has caring and loving people, concerned for each other and willing to work jointly for the betterment of the society irrespective of their, caste, creed, culture, religion or socio-economic conditions. Ultimately, when every individual develops a sort of commitment and obsession to work for all those who come in contact with them, we may have a society where no rules, regulations or laws may be needed to govern them.